01 The Tiger's Cubs
by Cougarcreed
Summary: 01 the Tiger's Cubs


Disclaimer:

Yes I'm at it again. Long before I started writing "All I wanted was a family of ma own" I found I couldn't choose a background that I like best for Griffin, I kept having all these ideas so I picked one that I really liked and started writing his story, but those other backgrounds are haunting me now with their "What if I'd chosen a different past for the kid?" so I've decided to write out another one of his backgrounds and just let things happen, lets just look at this as a Griffin story from another dimension. 

"All I wanted was a family of ma own" and "What did you say?" is about dimension #1 Griffin, so I guess that makes this a dimension #2 Griffin story. (Confused yet? I am and I'm the one writing this thing) I don't know much about the whole Forge X-Factor situation, so I'm just going to wing it J.

Griffin in any dimension is mine, all mine. So if you want to use him please ask, submit a blood sample and write a 1,000,000 word explanation on what you want to do with him and then I might let you borrow him, the same thing goes for Metallica and the twins Loric and Navar.

As ever Marvel own all the rights to the X-Men, I admit to borrowing them from time to time for my own purposes, without their permission, but since I don't make any money from this, I hope they will take pity on me and ignore what is in fact my tribute to their creations.

The Tiger's Cubs 

By DelCreed

(griffincreed@hotmail.com)

X-Mansion Westchester NY:

Dr. Henry McCoy, the blue furred mutant code named 'Beast' a current member of the mutant team known as the X-Men and a former member of the Avengers, meticulously sifted through the files he'd been able to salvage from the remains of one of Mr. Sinister's, no longer so secret bases, as he paced back and forth in his Med-Lab. He flipped through file after file till he came to one in a green jacket, his hand froze as he read it's contents and his jaw dropped open in shock as he stood rooted to the floor, then he turned to the back of the file and looked at the three photos that were taped there. Taking a deep breath he made a decision based on logic and hoped it was the right one, he walked to his com-unit and buzzed Scott Summers. 

"Yes Hank?" Scott promptly answered the doctor's summons.

"Um … Scott, could you arrange a meeting with the team in the briefing room and have Forge and all of X-Factor link in on it." There was a short silence.

"Can I ask why you want this?" Taking another deep breath Hank explained.

"There is a file here that concerns both our teams equally and I think that we ALL need to deal with it together." Scott said he'd arrange the meeting and would call back as soon as it was set up. "Oh … and Scott tell the Professor he needs to be there for this too." Hank thought as he sighed 'Things are really going to get interesting.'

***********

An hour later in the Briefing room:

Hank looked around the room and then at the monitor where Forge, surrounded by his team, X-Factor, was waiting to hear the reason they'd all been called together. Mystique leaned lazily against the wall spinning her gun as Polaris sat on Havok's lap and held his hand, Shard stood at attention next to Forge, Strong Guy spoke quietly with Wildchild and Sabretooth glared via the screen at Logan for a moment then stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry at the short Canadian. Jean looked at Cable, who was visiting with Domino, rolled her eyes and quickly put her hand on Wolverine's shoulder and spoke into his mind.

# Creed is a jerk, what will be your excuse if you lower yourself to his level? # She asked. Logan looked back at Creed and raised his eyebrow before saying,

"Grow up Creed." Then he turned away to hide his smile when he saw Tooth's angry frown. Jubilee smiled at Logan and said just loud enough to be heard over the mic.

"Looks like Wolvie is the bigger man, and Creed is the sillier one." Sabretooth snarled.

"Watch your mouth frail, 'cause one of these days I'll-" Logan snapped.

"You won't do anything to her, because if you even breath on her I'll do more then put a claw through your brainpan again Creed." Victor sat back satisfied that he'd finally gotten a rise out of the runt. Scott shot Hank a pleading glance that clearly said 'Get on with it'.

"I have asked you all here because of this file," He held up the green file for all of them to see. "It was written by one of Sinister's research assistants, in it is the location of a house in Canada where Sinister is keeping what this assistant called 'The master's Masterpieces'. When I read further I learned what the 'Masterpieces' are, they are his … children." The room was dead silent, till Creed spoke.

"Great so just we go in, gut 'em an' leave the pieces there for Sinister to find." Forge spun around and drew his hand across his thought.

"I don't mean that they are his biological children," Beast clarified "these are children he created through years of testing and experiments. There are four of them, and because of who they are you all need to know about them before we can plan a mission to remove them from Sinister's… care." Professor Xavier spoke.

"Who are they? Henry please explain." Hank inserted a disk, he'd prepared, into the counsel and called up the part of the file he wanted to share with those assembled.

"There are four of them, as I've said, a girl and three boys." He typed a command and the photo of a girl appeared on the screen. "This is the oldest Metallica eight-teen, in this photo taken three years ago, she is fifteen and a T.O. virus has just finished taking over all of the cells in her body." Cable gasped, in his worst nightmares he could see this happening to him one day and here was a girl, a child, who was now a living machine. He looked at her photo, she was beautiful even if she was covered by silver circuits from head to toe, and somehow she had managed the get the circuits that cover her head to grow out into a kind of spiky metallic hairdo and her eyes blazed with a green light. "She is a shape shifter, able to morph parts of her body into weapons like claws and laser-blasters or change completely into various objects like motorcycles, she is a lot like Warlock to a point. The most amazing thing about her and that you all need to know is that she is biologically Mystique and Cable's daughter." Mystique dropped her gun and lunged closer to the screen and gasped looking at the girl who, up close, looked very much like her.

"What? My daughter …" There were mummers throughout the room as people commented on this unexpected situation. 

"Dose that mean Scott is like someone's grandpa?" Jubilee asked out loud and Logan just about fell off his chair laughing. It took sometime for the room to come to order and another moment for Forge to pull Mystique off of Sabretooth who'd said,

"Well what difference dose one more kid make to her, Raven's dropped more pups then some bitches I've seen, one she pitches off a cliff, the boy she kept from me was a real dud and then she goes and picks one up off the street." Rogue had gasped in pain at that comment and Mystique had charged the blond psychopath. Once all was settled Henry continued.

"There is a set of twins, Loric and Navar are nine years old. They were six in this photo ... and hadn't exhibited any powers when this file was written." The photo of two slim boys appeared on the screen, they had blond hair, yellow eyes and looked tall for their age. "They are Mystique and Sabretooth's children." Creed sputtered, Raven's hands fisted in her hair and she looked ready to kill.

"Why me, why doesn't he use someone else's genes!" She muttered, before things got out of hand Henry quickly spoke again.

"These three children are really just secondary projects, Sinister's true purpose was to create this boy," he put up the last photo, it was of a boy who crouched in a springing position, with his long red/gold hair, yellow/green eyes and bared fangs he looked ready to attack the person holding the camera with four inch long claws as his long, fur tipped, tail curled over his shoulder. "This is Griffin, the only surviving offspring of project 'Quad-Breed' here he is 11, and just coming into his powers, he can see in almost absolute dark, clawed hands and feet, prehensile tail and he has a healing factor … so far." Scott's head jerked up.

"So far?" He asked.

"Yes, when this file was written three years ago he was still developing. " Xavier rolled closer.

"What is project 'Quad-Breed'? What was Sinister doing?" Hank looked uncomfortable.

"The project was an attempt at creating a child from the combined biological material of four mutants, two with physical mutations and two with mental mutations. Two women had eggs removed from them without their knowledge, one woman yielded six eggs, and the other yielded eight. The second sample of the two male mutants hadn't been obtained at the start of his testing, so Sinister took the surplus eggs, fertilized them, and implanted one into a volunteer. The other fertilised egg was frozen for a time and forgotten till it was 'found' during a cataloguing of experiments, it was implanted it into one of Sinister's Arklight clones, that egg split and resulted in the twins. Once Sinister had all his biological samples he spliced together the six eggs and fertilized them with the combined biological components of the two males, implanted then into various clones and waited. Three of the eggs never developed, one died at birth because it had no lungs and one was born with a deformed heart and died three years later. This boy Griffin was the only one to survive, and there is another thing that everyone needs to know, Griffin has no vocal cords, so he is unable to talk." The room was quiet then Bobby said,

"Well the woman with eight eggs was Mystique, I mean those other kids are hers but who are his other parents? Sabretooth, Cable and who?" Hank smiled.

"Brilliant deduction Bobby, you have the two physical mutation parents right, Mystique and Sabretooth. But Cable isn't this boy's father, because of who one of his mothers is." Cable sighed, then yanked the location and information about the house from Hank's mind and started reviewing plans on how to get those kids out of that house, how to get his daughter out of there. "The mental mutations parents Sinister found here, he some how found out about a young telepath and used her eggs." Jean looked up in horror.

"Me, he took my eggs." It wasn't a question, she knew that boy was hers. "That was why he couldn't use Cable as the father, then he must have used Scott's …" Hank shook his head.

"Scott's powers aren't mental." Hank whispered.

"But the only guy with Mental powers here is like the Professor … oh my gosh!" Jubilee looked slack-jawed at Xavier. "He's your kid!" Xavier looked at Hank who nodded.

"My son." He whispered, and Scott felt a slight stab of jalousie. "We will get those children… NOW. Henry you say the file is three years out of date we'll need to check that house to see if they are still there. Lets move."

"I've got a plan hammered out for a recon mission." Cable said as he stood up and started drawing on the eraser-board with a blue marker, and everyone listened to him as he presented a rather straightforward and simple plan of action.

**********

Some time later;

"Avon… you want Jean and I to pose as those Avon peddlers?" Storm asked in disbelief. Cable nodded. Bobby laughed as he acted out ringing a doorbell.

"Hi, we were walking by your house and our ugly detecting radar went off, but we have just the thing to help you… funky smelling creams and bubble bath that keeps even mosquitoes away."

"I'm glad you like the plan because you, Scott and Alex (Havok) will be going in as Jehovah's witnesses." Bobby choked then sputtered.

"What? You can't send me in with the Summers' boys I'll be killed or some of their Summersness might rub of on me… I… I could loose my sense of hummer!" Bobby got up and ran to Beast and tried to climb up on him, "Grover help me, save me, help me." Jubilee and Logan were laughing by now, and Cable decided with a wicked smile, that they'd need one more team to be there for this.

"Wolverine, Jubilee and Mystique, morphed into an oriental woman, will approach the house as a family who are looking into perhaps moving into the area. Jubilee can ask about any kids living there." Logan whimpered and Jubilee slid down under the table as Mystique face-palmed. Scott swallowed and nodded.

"That is a good plan, but maybe… um…" Scott looked around the room at all the people gathered there and those on the monitor, Spylock's purple hair, Warren's blue skin, Strong-guy was too huge to be aloud, Bishop had that M Tattoo, Forge was only half a man, Polaris had green hair, Shard was a hologram, Gambit's red on black eyes, Marrow's protruding bones, Rogue's body covered from neck to toe and that white stripe, Hank's blue fur, the Professor… no not in his wheelchair he couldn't get away fast enough if something went wrong, Sabretooth… his mind couldn't even go there, Joseph… Joseph yes, he looked normal enough. "Maybe we should just give Joseph a haircut and send him with Bobby and Alex… I believe I would be more useful out of sight." He offered, but Cable smiled and shook his head.

"Joseph is a flyer, we need him as back up to get you out if something goes wrong." Scott seamed to deflate for a moment.

"Okay… um a really good plan Cable," 'Bonding with my son, I'm only saying this to bond with my son.' Scott told himself as he continued. "We should move on this A.S.A.P." Everyone agreed and things where finalised and people went off to prepare for tomorrow's mission.

*********

The Next morning;

"Um… Bobby, why are you dressed like a refugee from the 60's and holding that bouquet of Storm's flowers?" Hank asked his best friend.

"This is my cover Hank, I'm Witnessing today." Hank shook his head. "What? I refuse to wear a yellow sheet, they make people thing you've wet the bed or something." 

"They only dress like that in the movies Bobby. Jehovah's witnesses now dress like- " Just then Scott walked in wearing a three piece suit looking like a banker or the C.E.O. of a prosperous Corparation. "Well… like that." Hank pointed at Scott. "It is to try and make people think that if they join their religion that they will be successful."

"I'd feel like I was being audited by the I.R.S. if a group of people showed up at my door looking like that" Bobby muttered and Hank nodded in agreement before Bobby handed him the flowers and went back to his room to quickly change into a monkey suit, because they'd had to be leaving soon to rendezvous with X-Factor. Storm walked in and saw Beast with her flowers.

"Henry, my flowers look nicer and live longer in my garden." She said sadly as she looked at the drooping blooms before walking back out. Beast opened his mouth to explain but he was too late, so he just shrugged and sighed.

*************

The South Shore of Montreal, Quebec Canada

A Small municipal Park Near the target house.

(Hey write what you know about, it makes it easer to describe a place)

They touched down in the snow blanketed sports field, and quickly exited their cloaked aircrafts; Cable led the walkers, as Jean (with the route in her mind) led the flyers. Everyone, except Spylock and Wildchild who'd stayed with the aircrafts, rendezvoused around the corner from 'The House'. They were hidden in a small path that was fenced on one side and lined by tall bushes on the other, when they heard a sound from behind them. It sounded like a cross between growling and DarthVader's breathing.

"….(Insert sound here)…" They all turned to see a tall red/gold-haired boy stomping down the path behind them, swinging a backpack and shaking his head. It was Griffin, the Quad-breed, one of the children they'd come for, he was about a half foot taller and looking more mature then he had in the photo. Cable reached out and linked his mind and everyone else's with the boy's. # I can't believe I missed the school bus; aunt V will be so ticked with me. 'Whoa' who are all these guys. # The boy stopped and stood looking at the combined members of the two X-teams. He looked at Jean and Storm dressed in pastel colours and holding carryall bags. # An Avon… ambush? # Then he saw Scott, Alex and Bobby standing together. #And Jehovah's witnesses, but that dark blond one looks more like an accountant. # His eyes went to the other faces till he came to… # Wow, like wow, she's… (He swallowed) she's beautiful. Stop looking you idiot… stop looking. Well if you aren't going to stop looking at least smile at her. No wait don't she'll see your fangs. # He was unaware that his thoughts where broadcasted to everyone who stood there looking back at him. 

"NO oh, no way is some kid of mine is going to like the runts frail little sidekick." Sabretooth suddenly bellowed. The boy, Griffin jumped back from the tall, shouting blond man who was pointing a clawed finger at the beautiful girl just as a half mechanical man jumped him.

# Clawed fingers… like mine. What is going on here? # Griffin wasn't stupid and in that instant he bolted down the path. # Uncle Hunter said this could happen one day, people looking to hurt us, Tallica must still be home her collage classes don't start till noon, the twins… safe at school down the street, if these guys haven't already gotten them… # He'd reached the end of the path and was now standing in the middle of the residential street when that thought hit him, he stopped and turned to face all the people who were following him. # I can't let them near my family. But Tallica said never to let anyone see my other powers… What do I do? # He took a deep breath and dropped his backpack on the ground, as his fingernails became four-inches long, bronze coloured, claws and his four foot tail unfurled from under his jacket to slash at the air behind him. # Okay I can't let aunt V know about my sound and illusion powers because they'll tell that creepy man about them and I'll be taken away, but I'm close enough to send Tallica a message to get the twins away to safety. # Griffin's eyes took on a strange yellow glow as he sent one of his 'voices' to the window of Tallica's room. # "Tallica, there is danger, go out the back and get to the twins, take them to the woods behind their school, to the tree-house we built. I'll hold them off." # The window shattered outward and a silver streak came flying out of it. The boy smacked himself in the head in frustration. The X team didn't need to be linked to the boy's mind to hear the disembodied voice that seamed to come from every where, without Griffin opening his mouth. "Tallica, I said go to the twins." The voice sounded just like Sean Connery's. # I've been watching too many James Bond movies lately. # Griffin thought. "I'll hold them off!" The voice said again.

"Oh my gosh, Griffin don't do anything, don't you recognize them from the pictures? They're the X-men and okay I don't know who those other guys are but they are the ones Uncle Hunter and Dr. Essex are always complaining about." The tall silver girl was now standing beside the boy with her hand on his arm. "Why are you here? Are you going to hurt us?" Griffin rolled his eyes.

"Right Tallica their going to tell you the truth." The Connery voice came out of nowhere again. Scott walked closer to the girl till Griffin snarled flashing his teeth at him and he stopped.

"We found a file about you and your brothers in the labs of a geneticist we… um… visited recently." Scott wasn't sure how she'd react if he told her they'd actually been there destroying the lab and he saw the girl's eyes go wide.  

"My brothers… the twins and Griffin are my brothers?" She looked at Griffin who's mouth had fallen open. Scott nodded. "I-" Griff elbowed her in the ribs. "We never knew we where related." Then suddenly the front door of the house opened and an older woman with white hair stood there for a moment looking at everyone in surprise.

"What is going on here?" The woman shouted.

# Aunt V. # Griffin thought as he looked at the X team, there was a movement from the back of the group as a blue woman pulled up… # a gun! # And she was aiming it at what the X-men realized must be an older Vertigo clone. # No, Aunt V! # There was a light blue glow around Mystique and she found herself being lifted up, held up side-down and unable to move her gun. "You will not hurt my aunt!" his voice echoed around everyone. 

"Griffin no don't used your other powers, he'll detect them!" Tallica shouted just as a large glowing circle appeared near them. "Oh no, its too late Griff he's here- " she broke off as she looked closer "and the twins are with him." She whispered sadly. Just then Mr. Sinister stepped out and in each of his hands was one of the twin's slender necks.

"What is this, a sudden manifestation of powers? A late bloomer I knew you had potential Quad-Breed. You will come with me now and the twins will not be harmed." Then he realised he had an audience and his grip tightened on the little boys. "Stay away, X-Men." Cable cut off the mind-link with the boy because his thoughts were going wild with concern for the two little boys. "Don't even think about it Summers, those optic blasts of yours will seal the doom of these two if you so much as twitch your nose." Then two things happened at once, the silver girl's eyes flashed red and the gun in Mystique's hand went off. Metallica had blasted Sinister's right forearm as Griffin had used his newly revealed T.K power to fire the gun at Sinister's left shoulder. "Aaaaggg." He released the boys and they ran to hide behind Griffin. 

"Spylock get the Blackbird here now." Scott shouted as he moved to cover Sinister but seeing this Essex quickly ported away. Jean held off Vertigo as Scott told the children. "We are your family, we came here to take you all home, where you won't have to worry about becoming mercenaries or research projects for a mad scientist." They looked at each other and huddled closer. Then something really surprising happened.

"Go with them my little ones, it will be safer for you, don't become what I was, what I am… Because after caring for you all these years I realise you'll just end up being used and sent out to die if you stay here." Vertigo's voice reached them and Jean released her. Tallica, Griffin and the twins went to her and hugged her good-bye. "Now pack up your things quickly and be safe." Forge spoke into his com-unit and had Wildchild get their jet in the air, so they could all get going.

************

At Xavier's Mansion;

The raised voices where coming from the living room as the two teams argued over were the 'children' would stay, as Jubilee and Logan (who refused to leave her alone with "Tooth's Boy") played with them in the rec-room on the internet.

"Watch this, Griffin read this fan-fic story." Tallica laughed. Griff took a look at the short story on the screen and smiled before he closed his eyes for a moment and then looked into the air and snapped his fingers. There before everyone's eyes a 3-D image formed and the story he'd just read was played out like a movie. "Griffin can create illusions and he is really good at making up his own thought movies."

"Ya, at night we-"

"Tell him about a place,"

"A thing,"

"And a person, then he makes up a story for us." The twins had a habit of talking like a ping-pong tournament. They where young and already had heightened senses and healing factors, one was agile the other was stealthy but what Sinister hadn't known was that the two boys could phase together to become bigger, stronger and that with a thought they could turn themselves or objects around them invisible. At that point the level of the shouts became louder and Mystique's voice rang out.

"They are all my children, they will stay with me." Only to have Sabretooth snarl back at her,

"Ya you did such a good job raising Graydon that he wanted us both dead, and you tossed your blue devil of a son off a cliff, I don't want any of those little ankle-biters around me… lousy kids." The twins looked at each other and Tallica looked down at the carpet, she knew Sabretooth wasn't her father but she felt bad for the boys having to hear this. Scott was the next to speak and what he said surprised even him.

"Like they'd want to be raised by a psychopath. Griffin is the Professor's son and Jean's too, he should stay with us, Cable's daughter should go with him to X-Force. You can have the twins." Bobby raised his voice and shouted.

"What is wrong with all of you, didn't you see how those kids relayed on each other? You can't go splitting them up like this right away. Heck your granddaughter is old enough to be in college now, Scott don't you think we should ask her what she wants to do about her education, as for the boys they need to be together." It was a surprise indeed to have Bobby turn out to be the voice of reason. Jubilee looked where Griffin was holding the twins and Tallica, then she looked at Logan who looked like he wanted to kick both Scott and Sabretooth where it would hurt a lot, she huffed and marched into the living room.

"Yo you tell 'em snowball, like first of all they can like hear you in South America let alone the next room where your upsetting the 'kids', and you are all wrong, Griffin, Tallica and the twins are like not going to stay with any of you or your teams, they are like around my age, so they're Gen-X bound, problem settled. Of course you can all visit them when you want, but like just call first." With that she went back to the rec-room and sat down next to Griffin on the couch. "So can you make up a story about Wolvie." Griffin smiled at her then cast a doubtful look at the man snarling at him, as he inched away from Jubilee till Logan stopped growling.

*************

Living Room 

There was silence for the first time that afternoon between the two teams then Cable stood up and held out his hand to Domino.

"So you want to go and get to know my daughter?" Dom smirked.

"Sure, invite your father and uncle along, I'll bring the aspirin, a pitcher of water and some glasses, we'll need it after you get through tell her the Summer's family history or maybe I should just bring some Prozac." Cable rolled his eyes. "Scott, Alex if you want to join us." They all left the room. Xavier looked at Jean and they went out the door to speak with Griffin. Mystique followed them out with a doubtful look on her face. Sabretooth sat back and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I didn't want anymore stinking kids." Bobby looked at Hank.

"Hey Hank can fix that, what dose it take Hank, two snips and some stitches." Hank looked wide-eyed at Sabretooth and quickly picked up a laughing Bobby and bounded from the room, to save his best friend's life. A small sound made the large blond man turn to look in a corner of the room, where the air seamed to shimmer for a moment before two little boys appeared.

"Well we have Griffin, so-"

"We don't want or need you either." They looked up at him with miniature sneers on their faces, that looked a lot like the one Creed saw in the mirror every morning.

'That is kinda cute, they look like little me's.' Sabretooth thought before he shook himself, what was he thinking silly like that for. "Well then get away from me. What are you two doin' here anyway, I thought the runt was lookin' after you." The two boys shrugged then smiled. "What?"

"You don't-"

"Have any-"

"PANTS ON!" They both finished together laughing as they rushed from the room. 'Tooth looked down and saw that even if he could still feel his pants on his legs, it looked like he was sitting there in his happy-face boxer-shorts.

"Hey, bring my pants back you little runts." And he ran after his two boys.

***********

Rec-Room;

The twins jogged past the door and Griff's disembodied voice that now sounded a lot like Xavier's (or captain Picard's), called out to them.

"What are you two up to?" The two boys smiled as they said together.

"We're playing tag-" 

"-with our Dad." Then they laughed and ran out the front door, just as Creeds voice boomed.

"I want my pants back… right now!" And everyone saw his underwear. Jubilee smiled and couldn't wait for when Frosty learned about the new kids, she be going nuts in no time with them around. All Logan could think after seeing Creed was about the nightmares he was going to have… Smiley Faces? (Shutter) oh the horror!

The End


End file.
